Cult of Hockey game grades: Maroon and rowdy Oilers pancake LA Kings

The 3-to-1 score flattered the Los Angeles Kings. Outside of a few iffy moments in the first period, the Edmonton Oilers had almost every player rolling and winning his battles. The Oilers pancaked the road weary Kings off their skates with hard hits and rammed the puck down the slot for numerous dangerous scoring chances, getting 13 Grade A scoring chances to just seven for the Kings.

This is the same L.A. Kings where stars Anze Kopitar and Jeff Carter have regularly run Edmonton’s show for years, dominating the Oil in every way. It’s the same Kings with Drew Doughty, who was often seen throttling Jordan Eberle and ramming Taylor Hall through the boards.

On Thursday night, it was Dought getting rammed, as big Patrick Maroon — as fitting a symbol of the new and brawny Oilers as anyone — hammered him a few times with good hits. Doughty was last seen smashing his stick against the goal posts in disgust after Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ empty net goal.

But Doughty better get used to this new version of the Oilers.

This big, tough and skilled Edmonton team is for real.

Connor McDavid, 7. Seemed like a quiet night for McDavid with no points, but he still chipped in on more scoring chances than any other Oilers player, 9 in total, doing so against tough d-men like Alec Martinez, 8:33 at even strength against McDavid, Drew Doughty, 6:18, and Jake Muzzin, 8:46.

Milan Lucic, 7. Today Lucic is the most relieved man in Edmonton, as his brain cramp of a slot giveaway led to the Kings having a five alarm scoring chance in the last minute. But Lucic had earlier made a great play to win a physical battle on the winning goal, then fire the puck into the crease where Eberle tipped it, and played it over to Eric Gryba. Lucic also threw some big hits, levelling Devin Setoguchi a few times, as if to say, “How dare you try to replace me on the Kings, ponk!” Of course, Setoguchi almost got his revenge, as he was the one who jumped on Lucic’s late mega-turnover and almost scored.

Jordan Eberle, 7. Now that is more like it, Mr. Ebs. A couple of fine finesse plays on the first two Oilers goals. He’d have a higher mark but made a couple of own-zone turnovers that led to Kings scoring chances.

Leon Draisaitl, 8. Big Drai bossed the game. A major statement game from his line as they got the best of a tough match-up against Anze Kopitar (11:45 against Draisaitl at even strength) and Drew Doughty, 10:43 against Drai. Drai made five major contributions to Grade A chances, including one in the third where he outmuscled Doughty in a race-for-the-puck and got off a wicked one-handed snipe from the inner slot.

Patrick Maroon, 9. Strong move into the crease on his power play goal, set up Draisaitl on a Grade A chance and had another one himself on an RNH feed. So the skill was there with Maroon but so was the crash. He threw more hard hits in this game than any other player. His standing up to Doughty was something that needed to happen (and bumped Maroon’s mark up a full grade), as Doughty has intimidated the Oilers forever.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 7. He looks super fine on a line with Draisaitl and Maroon, offensive players that he can keep up with, but can get stuff done on their own as well. Set up Maroon for a great shot on a sizzling cross-seam pass late in the second. He was even good on the faceoff dot, winning seven, losing just three.

Drake Caggiula, Benoit Pouliot, Jesse Puljujarvi, 6 each. Caggiula and Puljujarvi especially had their best games in ages, and were rewarded with more ice, even late in the game. Puljujarvi played 12:57, Caggiula 12:03, Pouliot 13:17. Both Puljujarvi and Caggiula seemed determined to make plays on the attack, to demonstrate some swagger, and it paid off as this line created two Grade A chances and two Grade B chances while giving up nothing in their own zone.

Zack Kassian, 5. Had one great shot on a Letestu feed in the first. Otherwise a fairly quiet night in just over 10 minutes of icetime.

Mark Letestu, 4. Played well enough and had that fine feed to Kassian, but his turnover on the L.A. goal bumps his grade down a peg.

Matt Hendricks, 4. The effort was there but lost a battle at the blueline on the Kings goal.

Oscar Klefbom, 4. He had what is becoming a typical night for Klefbom now, some good puck moving and one or two really bad moments on defence. And it’s not like Klefbom had killer minutes either. He faced Kopitar the most, but also saw a good helping of easier assignments against Nick Shore, Trevor Lewis, Nic Dowd, Kyle Clifford and Jordan Nolan. His groaner moment came early in the third when he made a turnover on a play where he should have got the puck out of the Oilers end, kicking off the sequence of pain that led to the only L.A. goal. Klefbom was not given credit for even one hit this game. He has got to learn from his partner Larsson how to play a more tough and nasty game, just as Larsson learned from his defensive coach Scott Stevens in New Jersey.

Adam Larsson, 7. He led the Oilers with seven hits, most of them his usual nasty rub-outs along the defensive boards. Larsson played it cool and tough in his own zone and chipped in a bit on the attack.

Matt Benning, 6. He leaked a few scoring chances against, but most were of the Grade B variety. He played tough minutes alongside of Kris Russell and held his own filling in for Andrej Sekera, so the kid should be proud.

Kris Russell, 7. Led the Oilers in time-on-ice with 21:51. He made fine plays all over the ice, swooping in to break up repeated L.A. attacks, two in this one sequence.

Russell also faced a steady diet of Jeff Carter and Anze Kopitar, but lived to tell the tale. Made a few mistakes on scoring chances, but was able to put out most fires started elsewhere. Demonstrated here why Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli evidently sees him as a keeper.

Eric Gryba, 8. He joined in the attack all game and was rewarded with the game-winning goal. Gryba is now on a run where he’s playing his best hockey as an Edmonton Oiler. His only major mistake on this night was an own-zone turnover in the first that led to a dangerous Jeff Carter chance in the slot. But generally the big d-man was great out there, so much so that with a minute left in this tight game his coach had him and Davidson out on the ice.

Brandon Davidson, 7. He’s doing it again, moving up the Oil’s depth chart with smart, aggressive play. The only downer cow moment was his brain glitch of a turnover that led to a nasty Tanner Pearson scoring chance in the first.

Cam Talbot, 6. Wasn’t to blame on the L.A. goal and was solid most of the night, save for one bad turnover and a bad rebound or two that led to Grade A scoring chances for the Kings. The Oilers didn’t need Talbot to win this one for them. He just had to refrain from losing it and he held up the bargain.

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